Microsoft collates feedback on Xbox via UserVoice, which is a service all sorts of companies use to gather opinions and suggestions from their customers. On UserVoice, you can sign in with your Xbox account, upvote favored ideas, and add your own suggestions for the perusal of Xbox's platform team. It's similar to the Feedback Hub on Windows 10.
This week, we asked our forum users to submit their own ideas for features they'd like to see hit Xbox, and I thought it'd be fun to take a look across the top suggestions from across the community.
Here's some of the most-requested (realistically possible) features and functionality Xbox users would like to see on the console.
Family Game Sharing
One great piece of feedback comes from user EnzoTen, who notes how poor the experience is for families with multiple consoles purchasing digital games. You can share your digital library between two consoles at present, but if I want to allow another user in my family to play a digital game I own, that means I have to permanently sign into their Xbox. Family Game Sharing would bring back the experience of simply lending a disc, albeit digitally. EnzoTen suggests allowing app sharing between family members on the same local network to prevent abuse. You can upvote it right here.
Right now having multiple Xbox Ones in the house is not a good experience since every member in the house needs to buy their own games. If I buy a digital game I can play it on any Xbox One in the house but my family members can only play that game on the Home Xbox One.Like Apple's family app sharing, members of your family members that are tied into your credit card with permission should be able to buy a game or app for your family's home game library.
Cortana command: "Find controller"
This should be a no brainer, but user FrozenUncle suggested a new Kinect / Cortana Xbox command, "find controller," which would cause your controller to start vibrating. As someone who misplaces their controller on the regular, this would be a great addition. Upvote that one right here.
Add a "Xbox find controller" command so your controller would start vibrating. Would save a lot of people a lot of trouble!
A wireless Xbox monopiece headset
This is one request I hear time and time again, especially from fans of the previous console generation. The Xbox 360 had a wireless monopiece headset simply for chat, allowing users to wirelessly talk in an Xbox party without having to ditch their existing sound setups.
It's odd that Microsoft has so far overlooked this request, but if you're interested, upvote this feedback from Mr WillisWillis.
Like the xbox wireless headsets for the 360, we need one for the one. Just chat, no game sound needs to come through like the pro gaming headsets. We need one just like the old headsets.
Add birthdays to the activity feed
Here's a cool idea no doubt borrowed from Facebook. User That505Guy suggests that Microsoft inject birthday annoucements into the activity feed, similarly to other social networks and even apps like Skype. Coupled with digital gifting, this would be a great way for Microsoft to earn a bit of extra cash and to remind users to be decent friends and buy their pals a pressie. You can upvote this feedback here.
Wouldn't it be awesome to get on xbox and your feed showed you who's birthday is today on your friends list if they so choose to have it shown? Maybe even add a feature where you can send them a xbox gift card or game?
Xbox 360 emulator for Windows 10
User Policjant Husky suggests that Microsoft should bring the Xbox 360 backwards compatibility emulator to Windows 10. Interestingly, I've heard from multiple sources at Xbox that this is, in fact, theoretically possible thanks to the Universal Windows Platform, however, I imagine the licensing issues would cause Microsoft a headache.
If you can get classic Xbox 360-era titles you already own in bulk on Windows 10, then there's a lot less incentive to buy a second copy of the game via Steam for those of us who play across both. Either way, it would certainly be interesting to see. Upvote that feedback over here.
Xbox 360 Emulator for digital downloaded Xbox 360 games. Xbox team had mention their intention to move away from re-mastering games for Xbox One however what about console exclusives we cannot play on the PC like EA SKATE?
Xbox Store wishlist
We know that digital gifting is on the way already, but the next logical step would be to include some sort of wishlist, similar to Steam and Amazon. Wishlists would allow users to see what games you want to own, but can't necessarily afford, incentivising gift purchases. Also, wishlists might inform you when games were on sale, similarly to how they do on Steam. Upvote this feedback from DeEdEeDeEdAn here.
i personally would like a wishlist for the xbox store. i dont always have the money to get a game when it comes out, a wish list would make it easier to just add a game to it when it comes out and then buy it later
Add picture-in-picture to replace Snap mode
Last year we revealed that Snap mode was going byebye, and indeed, a few weeks later Microsoft removed it. Snap mode allowed us to view an app or a video while playing a game, and while the solution was a bit clunky, the functionality was rather great. I've speculated in the past that Windows 10's "compact overlay mode" would replace Snap mode on Windows 10 for Universal Windows Platform apps, but we haven't seen the functionality appear yet.
UserVoice member Darth666Bane666 suggested back in March that Microsoft bring some form of picture-in-picture (PiP) functionality to Xbox, so get your upvotes in here if you want to see it.
Please give us this option. Whether a new pip or original snap. This was a system selling feature.
Xbox TV DVR
A while ago, Microsoft announced TV DVR for Xbox, which would've really completed the entertainment package Microsoft was putting together for the console. Sadly, a little later, Microsoft canned the project, citing the desire to focus on gaming instead. Whether it was licensing costs or some sort of legal issue that stopped Microsoft from following through may never be known, but the idea of having TV recording functionality is still alive and well as the highest requested TV feature on the Xbox UserVoice page. You can upvote the listing from Milesy007 right here.
Please, complete the TV experience on Xbox One with a DVR app that can record TV shows, in real time or scheduled keeping Xbox One in stand-by state. This step will finally make the Xbox TV really useful. I hope this will be possible at least with the new Digital TV Tuner and its free contents over the air. I'm an italian user and I don't know if this is possible in US with cable TV.
What functionality would you like to see?
There are thousands of other great suggestions on UserVoice, including the creation of an Avatar social hub an Achievement score levelling system, and much more.
We also have our own discussion taking place on our forums, where suggestions for things like Spotify, PC to Xbox streaming, and Cortana smart home functionality is taking precedence. Jump in the forum thread below to join the discussion, or hit the comments with your favorite ideas.
So Microsoft has been adding tons of new features to Xbox Live over time, we now have Arena tournaments and custom gamerpics, to name just a couple. However, there's still tons of features that PSN and Steam and other gaming platforms have that Xbox Live is still missing. What are some of your biggest feature requests? For me, I really want to see gifting and wishlists hit Xbox Live, they...
Jez Corden
